More mobile than ever: the 3 Skypephone

It hasn’t exactly been a secret, but today is a big day for the Skype team. It’s the launch of the 3 Skypephone!

It’s Skype in your pocket, wherever you go. It works with 3, the mobile provider in the UK (and Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Macau and Sweden) that’s already providing Skype on its compatible handsets (through its X-Series internet offering and more recently on all its Mix & Match tariffs if the phone supports it).

The 3 Skypephone does work as a regular mobile phone (on 3 pay as you go or pay monthly), but as you might have guessed from the name, it’s the first phone to build Skype functionality into the core of the device. You can import your Skype contacts into the phone’s contact list and there’s a single call history list for Skype and regular mobile calls. You can always broadcast your Skype status and make unlimited Skype-to-Skype calls wherever you go (subject to a very reasonable fair use policy).

It’s also a pretty slick piece of kit: it’s a 3G phone with a 2 megapixel camera, bluetooth, a 2” 220 x 176 screen, and a microSD slot to add up to 1 GB of memory. It has an internet browser (with 3’s Launcher for easy access to popular sites like eBay, Facebook and YouTube), a music player, and it runs Java applications and games. And did I mention you can make unlimited Skype-to-Skype calls? All in all it’s pretty awesome.

The 3 Skypephone will be available at 3 stores in the UK for £49.99 on pay as you go and for free on pay monthly from this Friday, November 2 (it’ll also be available in the Skype Store in the UK before Christmas). So over the course of this week I’ll be going in depth on the 3 Skypephone—showing off its functions and talking to some of the people who put it together about what it means for Skype, 3 and the mobile internet. I’m excited, I hope you are too.

Check out Villu’s post about it on the main blog, and the press release for more information.

Comments

Great news!!!. I am hope a "SkypePhone" that work with any telephone company soon. 3 isn't here (in Chile).

Anyone knows when this service is avaible in Spain???

Who cares about IPhone when we got a 3 Skypephone free of hardly-locks?!
I wish one!
But we still want a phone with 802.11 =]
Gretz for the launch!

does anybody know when it'll be available in USA?
this new gadget will break the many high prices of those companies

I see that for Australia its comming soon In Australia the "3" network does not cover alot of places outside the capital cities will there be an option for those of us not covered by 3?

When are we going to have this here in Brazil???
I want 5 !

If you purchase this phone from the UK does that mean you will be given a UK mobile number? What if i want to put my own sim card in it can i do that?

Hi all--to everyone asking about when the 3 Skypephone will reach you, 3 is the only operator offering the phone right now, so you need to live in a 3 market (which is Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Macau, Sweden and United Kingdom). 3 is a growing service, but the 3 Skypephone won't be available where 3 isn't available.

trishmoore1980--you're correct, you do get a UK mobile number with a new sim card--the 3 Skypephone is a mobile phone as much as it's a phone for Skype. You can't put your own sim card into the phone (unless you're already on 3), but if you want to get the 3 Skypephone and want to keep your number, you can set up a new 3 account and have your current number transfered to it.

Now this is the kind of phone I really need. Unfortunately our telco situation in Costa Rica is a bit convoluted - it is run by a state-owned monopoly so we don't have providers like Telefonica and Movistar -yet-, which would be the careers most likely interested on distributing a phone like this, I think.

But carriers aside, won't this phone just work with Skype wherever there is a WiFi connection? Because if you do the bulk of your calls via Skype, there's little need for a SIM card, or am I wrong?

In either case, I'll have this phone over the iPhone any day (this coming from a Mac fanboy).

Esto sí que mola. Quiero uno!

It is correct that you said one can buy a 3 Skypephone account and have one's current skype number transferred to it. Does it matter if this current number is a U.S. number?

3skypephone and it doesn't matter to get any Iphone types.
On l'attend en France.

When is it gonna be in the U.S.?

Hi, I have brought the new skype phone from ebay and have a 3 mobile network phone card on a monthly tariff. = £15 per month for 1000 mins. what do I need to do to be able to use skype for calls to uk and estonia on the skype net?

hi, can i use it to make skype out calls? how would that work exactly. also can people call my skype in numbers i have 2 and would the call go to the 3 phone? at the moment i have cordlesses in my home but 1 of them is faulty and i'm thinking of this new option by 3. also, can i have skype running on my pc at the same time?? many thanks for any answers given.